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Heavy Class
The Heavy Class is one of the Soldier Classes in the game XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The primary role of the Heavy Class is delivering large-scale damage to as many targets as possible, through the use of explosive ordnance or heavy gunfire. Rookie promotion is slightly weighted toward classes you have less of, but promotion is otherwise completely random. Weapons The Heavy Class can be equipped with heavy weapons and a rocket launcher. Abilities When a soldier is promoted, certain ranks gives the player the option to choose 1 from the 2 available abilities to give to their soldier. Tactics The heavy is a frontline fighter that excels in winning straight fights with sustained fire from high cover. It also has explosives to break up enemy positions and to even the playing field if overwhelmed. It also excels at destroying enemy cover as not only the explosives damage cover, but heavy weapons innately damage cover more than other weapons. Like the other classes, there are two promotion paths for the Heavy. The left side turns the Heavy into a demolitions expert, whereas the right side focuses on holding the line and utility. The Heavy Class leans towards stationary positioning, as many of the class' abilities only work when no movement is made. The Bullet Swarm ability allows the Heavy to shoot (or shoot then move, reload, or keep overwatch) twice per turn, making it extremely devastating in stationary shootouts. To make the most out of the class, it is advisable to position the Heavy behind the best available and the most durable cover, to minimize the need for movement. Conversely, the Heavy is also very effective at dealing with enemies in cover, either through rocket weaponry or the Suppression ability. Rockets can hit many enemies at once and destroy their cover, exposing them for gunfire from your other troops. Suppression can be used for dealing with enemies hiding behind indestructible cover, minimizing the risk for your soldiers by reducing the enemy aim. It can also be noted that the Mayhem ability increases the damage on rockets and the initial damage of the Suppression ability by 1 point per tech level of the main weapon, bringing the maximum rocket damage to 12 when equipped with the Blaster Launcher and the Heavy Plasma. ''(Strategy Spoilers) ''Builds and Promotions Players who have completed Ironman on Classic and Impossible mode recommend taking at least Bullet Swarm, Shredder Rocket, and Danger Zone. Here are some explanations as to why: Bullet Swarm over holo targetting. Reason: Bullet swarm is not just a double shot; you can take actions after shooting once such as move, hunker down, grenade, reload, overwatch based on whether you hit. Shoot + Hunker down will see frequent use on impossible difficulty. More shots equal more kills, up to 2 kills in a turn, and more misses destroys more light cover, making some targets free kills just from the volume of fire. Holo-targetting promotes a more mobile strategy and promotes focus fire as a squad. It is however weaker as a stand-alone talent, so selecting it implies a commitment to its synergies on the right side of the promotion tree, which are are weaker individually until they hit critical mass as you attain the final couple promotions. Also suppression is a weak utility skill and yet it is the crux of the right-side build. This makes the holo build much weaker in the early months - the hardest part of the game - because the synergies haven't yet reached critical mass. The left side promotions are immediately relevant and can carry the squad through these crucial months. By the time you hit colonel and both builds would be complete, you have likely already gained enough momentum against the aliens to win the game, making the holo build a 'while you are winning, win' type of late game advantage. Shredder Rocket over Suppression. Reason: Shredder Rocket destroys cover, hits multiple targets, is almost guaranteed damage, and causes a damage increasing debuff. Suppression is a niche utility skill already taken on the Support Class as the 'Rifle Suppression' ability, and one or two troops able to apply it is plenty. Shredder rocket aids with alien capture almost as much as Suppression as it provides exactly 4 damage, allowing you to lower alien health without damage variance killing them by mistake. Suppression / Holo Targeting combo can be useful for focusing down big targets, but Shredder Rocket is also helpful against them, as it provides a debuff for +33% damage taken. Suppression costs more ammo than a normal shot, and in most cases the AI won't move and will just use their special alternative to shooting such as a grenade, poison, overwatch, or psionics anyway. As a last nail in the coffin, on high difficulties aliens can land shots frequently even with the -30% aim penalty. One reactive fire shot on one target is simply not significant, relegating the use of the skill to preventing isolated aliens from falling back, and 'freezing' would-be melee attackers and flankers as the AI almost never chooses to take the single reactive shot to reposition even if it could easily survive the hit. Even taking full advantage this likely bug, Suppression just doesn't have a significant enough impact. HEAT Ammo = Rapid Reaction. Reason: Both have merits, no clear winner. Rapid Reaction is better against melee, where reactive fire hits frequently and enemies must trigger reactive fire in order to attack. HEAT makes your heavy extremely effective against Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. If you have strong Psionics or promoted Shotgun Assaults, take HEAT Ammo; if you are having trouble against melee, take Rapid Reaction. In a Holo Targeting build, Rapid Reaction is the clear winner here. Danger Zone over Grenadier. Reason: Danger Zone improves your ace-in-the-hole further. Grenadier is rather poor since you generally equip Heavies with S.C.O.P.E.s, due to their natively low accuracy. Shredder builds don't need a 4th or 5th explosive, and Holo builds want more S.C.O.P.E.-enhanced shots for more Rapid Reaction procs. Rocketeer = Mayhem. Reason: Rockets don't scale well into the late game without Mayhem, but destroying cover is always relevant. Both abilities are strong, and there is no clear winner. For right-side builds, Mayhem is strong due to the damage increase on Suppression. For demolition setups with the Shredder Rocket, both promotions are a significant upgrade; select whichever suits your playstyle best. Category:Soldier Classes